


Day 17: Makeup - Paint So Sweet

by 221b_hound



Series: Techienician: Botanical Love [18]
Category: Dredd (2012), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: 30 Days of Techienician, M/M, Makeup, Scars, Techienician
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 08:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8048761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221b_hound/pseuds/221b_hound
Summary: When Techie's bad memories try to bring him down, he paints himself pretty to remind himself those days are gone. When his Matt needs reminding, Techie's there to bring colour to him, too.





	Day 17: Makeup - Paint So Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Posting 17 and 18 today to keep up with the days of the challenge!

When Techie escaped from Ma-Ma he had nothing but the clothes on his back, the eyes she had forced upon him, and the marks she had carved into his skin. Being clever, and resourceful, and so desperately grateful to be free, he soon found a new place for himself.

The First Order and the New Republic were not at war, settling instead into the hard-won accord. They were much of a muchness to Techie, anyway, and the First Order was nearest, and that’s where he took root.

He saved and saved his first months' pays then went to a skintech to have that hated and carelessly cut MALE on his forehead repaired. Saving for new eyes was too big a task, and he was too frightened to let anyone near them like that anyway - but that label of contempt had to go. He couldn’t bear to look at mirrors, at any reflective surface, and see that mark which made him hers. So he had a skintech fix it.

There’s still a little scarring on his forehead; a patch of skin paler than the rest. It was a very inexpensive skintech after all. Techie has a thin scar on his belly, too, from the knife she held to him to make him do things he didn’t want to do.

That’s all long past. Techie is grateful that Matt doesn't ask about his scars, though the sheer solemnity with which Matt kisses them can make Techie tremble with memory. When that happens, Matt knows and he does something silly – he’ll blow a raspberry on Techie’s bum, or make growly Wookiee noises and pretend to bite Techie’s nose, or start tickling Techie’s ribs and between his legs, making Techie shriek and giggle. Matt’s good at understanding when Techie doesn’t want to remember.

But some days when he’s by himself, Techie looks in the mirror and all he can see is the red rims of his sore eyes, and that patch of pale skin, and the almost invisible scar in his stomach, and all the bruises that don’t even live under his skin anymore - but he can still feel them, on bad days. 

Those are the days Techie resolutely embraces all the frivolity that his bad old life would never have allowed. He puts crystals in his hair and dresses in something pretty - maybe that silver insulating sheet Matt once found for him - and he twirls around their room, dancing because he can, singing to their kkortree that's all hung about with wire decorations he's made for Matt.  He’ll paint his face in bright mismatched colours, not to hide the pain but to remind himself it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Matt’s got his pain, too – different, maybe, but everyone’s pain is different. But Matt has learned a thing or two from his Techie, and one of them is how to tell old pain it isn’t needed any more – with colour and frivolity; with choosing joy.

So when Matt is sometimes too solemn, well, his Techie will adore him and adorn him with pretty things.  Techie will dab his fingers around the ridges of Matt’s eyes and along his grand cheekbones, over his beautiful wide mouth, and say, “I’m going to paint you so sweet.”

Techie takes out all his eyeshadows and rouges and lipsticks – things he’s found abandoned or bought cheap at the markets – and Matt sits still and offers up his face. He closes his eyes while Techie dusts sparkly purple colour onto his eyelids. He turns his face while Techie rubs ruby rouge along the line of the bone with his thumbs. He pouts and stretches his lips while Techie applies pale blue with a stubby stick of colour then, giggling, draws a matching blue stripe down the length of Matt’s noble nose.

Then Matt poses and mock-pouts at a mirror, then at Techie, who offers a sultry moue back, and the pretend sultry turns to real hilarity and they make kissy faces and laugh and play with each other’s hair, putting in crystals and combs and ribbons.

One thing always leads to another, and days like these always end in bed. Lipstick smudged on nipples and bellies and cocks; rouged cheeks and necks and bottoms; crystals on heads, in armpits, in crotches. Two men painted head to toe with happiness that they claim for and from each other.

 


End file.
